March 2026 Portfolio Update: S$111k Invested in a Tough Quarter

Atrahasis Portfolio Key Numbers (28 Mar  2026)

Period return (excluding contributions)-2.37%Market Move/Starting Balance
Starting balance (1 Jan) S$2,931,964.02
Purchases S$110,726.03
Sales proceeds
S$43,375.94Lemonade sale
Market move-S$69,426.11Endbal - Startbal - Purchases + Sales
Dividends ReceivedS$13,865.27
Ending balance (28 Mar)S$2,929,888.00
Bridge Cash Bucket (BCB)S$165,000/$420,000 (39 % funded)
Dividend tapS$4,536.30 /mth(90.7% of Target)
Total (Including BCB) S$3,094,888

Note: Dividend tap refers to the portfolio average monthly dividend which is estimated from Snowball Analytics.

Welcome to my March 2026 Portfolio Update. This one covers roughly three months since the last update on 26 Dec 2025, so it is less “what happened this month?” and more “did the machine keep working through a messy quarter?” I think it did. I bought a lot of core, added to healthcare REIT income, cleaned up one old US stock, and let the cashflows do their quiet compounding.

Purchases (1 Jan - 28 Mar)

  • IWDA (Core): 545 shares, approx S$91.3k

  • C2PU REIT (Country Tilts): 2,800 shares, approx S$11,188

  • EXCS (EM ex China): 500 shares, approx S$4.7k
  • AAA (AUD FX): 86 shares, approx S$3.8k

Sales (1 Jan - 28 Mar)

  • Lemonade (LMND): sold remaining 350 shares, proceeds approx US$33,860 (~S$43.5k)

Net capital deployed into markets: approx S$67,582 (Purchases-Sales)

March 2026 Portfolio Update: More Core, Less Clutter, Same Rules

January, February and March each arrived with a different mood, which is probably why this period felt longer than a calendar quarter. The Federal Reserve held rates steady in both January and March and kept describing inflation as “somewhat elevated.” In plain English: cash and short-duration assets stayed useful, REIT funding costs still mattered, and anything priced for a perfect falling-rate world had to work harder.

Singapore, on the other hand, had a proper moment in the sun. SGX said the STI was up 8% for the year by the end of February and hit an all-time high of 5,041 on 23 February, helped by broad-based strength across real estate and industrials. For a portfolio with a meaningful Singapore income sleeve, that was a nice reminder that “boring local names” can still surprise people.

Then the quarter ended by throwing a chair through the window with the onset of Ops Epic Fail. Reuters described Q1 as a period in which geopolitics wiped roughly US$7 trillion off global stocks, oil logged its second-biggest quarterly rise of the century, and global interest rates suddenly started pointing up rather than down. By 26 March, the Nasdaq had fallen into correction territory and Brent crude settled above US$108.

That backdrop matters because it explains why this update is not about calling tops or bottoms. It is about whether the Atrahasis machine behaved sensibly amidst the changing weather.

The core finally got a proper feeding

The clearest story is that the Core got fed. Hard. I added 545 units of IWDA across 13 separate trades, making it by far the biggest destination for capital this period.

That is exactly what should happen. The portfolio still needs more weight in the broad global engine and less emotional attachment to old single-stock baggage. I do not need to know whether oil spikes, AI excitement, tariff headlines or central-bank gossip will dominate the next fortnight. I just need to keep buying the world in a disciplined, repeatable way.

There is something calming about seeing the same boring ticker appear again and again in my transactions log. It tells me the portfolio is slowly becoming more like the plan and less like my past life as a stock picker.

One old position finally left the building

Back in November, I wrote that Lemonade was one of the “bagholders” I was essentially waiting to exit at break-even, partly to reduce clutter and partly because of the broader US-situs watchlist problem. January finally gave me that window, so I sold the remaining 350 shares and moved on.

This was not a heroic trade. It was housekeeping. Not every sale needs a grand macro thesis. Sometimes the right move is simply to close the tab on an old mistake, free up the capital, and redirect brainpower toward assets you actually want to own for the next decade.

C2PU kept proving why it belongs

After starting Parkway Life REIT in December, I added another 2,800 units this period. That took the position from a starter holding into something more meaningful inside the income sleeve.

I still like it for the same boring reasons I liked it three months ago: healthcare demand is less mood-dependent than retail, long leases help cashflows behave, and built-in rent escalators are useful when inflation refuses to fully disappear. This is not a “story stock.” It is a “please just keep paying me sensibly” stock, which is exactly the energy I want in the dividend sleeve.

EXCS and AAA stayed in their lanes

EXCS got a one-trade top-up. AAA got one small batch reinvestment. That is precisely how I want these supporting actors to behave.

EXCS gives me emerging-market exposure without automatically making China the whole conversation. AAA remains a legacy AUD cash sleeve that I am happy to let chug along quietly, especially when distributions accumulate and can be reinvested in batches rather than dripped in at random. Supporting roles are good roles, provided they actually support the plot.

Bitcoin behaved exactly like Bitcoin, which is why it stays small

One reason there were no crypto heroics in this period is that Bitcoin was already doing enough cardio on its own. Reuters reported on 5 February that Bitcoin fell 12.6% in a single day, dropped to its lowest level since October 2024, and was down 28% for the year at that point as ETF outflows and weaker risk sentiment hit the sector.

That is not a reason for me to panic. It is a reminder that the sleeve is sized correctly. Bitcoin is here as a small satellite, not as a substitute for a plan, a cash buffer, or adult behaviour.

The income spine kept doing its job

Across this roughly three-month stretch, there were about S$7.7k of SGD distributions, A$4.9k of AUD distributions, and about US$1.4k of net USD dividends after withholding. Using late-March FX, that works out to roughly S$13.9k equivalent in cashflows over the period, with March doing most of the heavy lifting.

That matters because it changes how the portfolio feels in volatile markets. When prices wobble, I am not staring at a screen waiting for emotional closure. Cash is still landing in the account. And every dollar, Aussie dollar and US dollar of that income gives me options: reinvest into weakness, top up safer assets, or simply let the dividend tap get thicker.

Reuters also reported that investors poured a record US$11.1 billion into short-term bond funds in the week through 25 March. That is basically the institutional version of the same instinct behind my Bridge Cash Bucket: when headlines get ugly, boring assets stop looking boring and start looking intelligent.

Looking ahead to April and the next Quarter

I am watching a few things, not to predict markets, but to decide where the next dollars should go.

  • Oil, rates and the late-March wobble
    • Why: If the energy shock lingers, inflation could stay sticky and markets may keep repricing growth and income assets.
    • What I might do: Keep feeding the core and quality income sleeves instead of trying to call the exact bottom.
  • Further simplification of the legacy tail
    • Why: Every old position I can exit intelligently reduces clutter, concentration and US-situs noise.
    • What I might do: Keep pruning when the price and logic line up.
    • What would change my mind: If a sale would mean giving away obvious value for no good reason, patience is still allowed.
  • Dividend tap and bridge progress
    • Why: These matter more to my actual retirement plan than winning some monthly performance beauty contest.
    • What I might do: Keep nudging reliable cashflow assets higher, while refusing to reach for fragile yield.
    • What would change my mind: If I find myself buying income because it looks exciting rather than durable, I will slow down.

Same rules, messier headlines. Boring is still beautiful.

December 2025 Portfolio Update: S$59k Deployed, New Healthcare REIT, and a Stronger Bridge

Atrahasis Portfolio Key Numbers (26 Dec  2025)

MTD return (excluding contributions)0.59%Market Move/Starting Balance
Starting balance (1 Dec) S$2,869,684
Purchases S$44,289.8
Market moveS$16,953Includes trading fees
Dividends ReceivedS$3,977
Ending balance (26 Dec)S$2,930,876.6
Bridge Cash Bucket (BCB)S$165,000/$420,000 (39 % funded)
Dividend tapS$3,916.78 /mth(78.33% of Target)
Total (Including BCB) S$3,095,876.60

Note: Dividend tap refers to the portfolio average monthly dividend which is estimated from Snowball Analytics.

Welcome to my December 2025 Portfolio Update. The "boring" machine is working: S$44k into markets, S$15k into safety, and zero drama. In this December 2025 Portfolio Update, I break down exactly where S$59k of capital went—building the bridge and feeding the dividend tap.

Purchases (1-26 Dec)

  • C2PU REIT (Country Tilts): 4,600 shares, approx S$18,515

  • IWDA (Core): 100 shares, approx S$16,626

  • EXCS (EM ex China): 500 shares, approx S$4,280

  • AAA (AUD FX): 78 shares, approx S$3,374

  • BTC (Alternatives): 0.0136 BTC, approx S$1,499

Total deployed: approx S$44,289.8

Note: I also added S$15,000 to the Bridge Cash Bucket (BCB). This is a safety allocation, separate from the market deployments above.

December 2025 Portfolio Update: The End Game is Not Clever, It Is Repeatable

December is when markets slow down, people speed up, and everyone suddenly becomes a macro expert over kopi.

Atrahasis did not join the shouting. Since inception on 1 Oct 2025, the job has been simple: build a portfolio that can fund early retirement without requiring perfect timing or perfect emotions.

So this year-end update is less “look at the return” and more “is the machine getting sturdier”. In December, it did.

December’s backdrop, in Singapore terms

When people say “rates matter”, it sounds like finance jargon. It is actually everyday life.

Interest rates are essentially the price of money. When that rate moves, three things happen:

  1. Your safe options pay more or less. Think T-bills, SSBs, fixed deposits, and high-yield savings accounts.
  2. Borrowing costs change. Mortgages feel it, and REITs feel it too because they use debt to own property.
  3. Income assets get repriced. REIT yields are compared against safer yields, so REIT prices can swing even when nothing changes in the buildings.

I do not try to predict the next rate move. I just build the portfolio so it can live through whatever the weather decides to do.

The BCB is retirement insurance, not idle cash

The Bridge Cash Bucket exists for one job: reduce sequence of returns risk when I retire.

The dangerous scenario is not “markets drop”. The dangerous scenario is “markets drop early in retirement”, right when withdrawals begin. A funded cash bridge lets me spend from safer assets for a few years, instead of selling equities after a drawdown.

Also, this bucket is not sitting idle. It is intentionally spread across:

    • High-yield savings (for me, DBS Multiplier is currently yielding 4.1% due to me still drawing an income).
    • Liquid cash deposits.
    • SSBs (Singapore Savings Bonds).
    • T-bills.

Why I started a new position in Parkway Life Real Estate Investment Trust (C2PU)

C2PU is a healthcare REIT, and this was a new position for Atrahasis.

I am building the income sleeve with one clear goal: grow a reliable “dividend tap” with a long-term target of S$5,000 per month. Healthcare assets tend to be less economically sensitive than retail or office space, which is exactly what I want behind an income stream.

What I like about C2PU’s characteristics as an income holding:

    • Defensive demand. Hospitals and care facilities do not depend on consumer mood in the same way malls do.

    • Long lease structures. I want cashflows designed to be predictable, not constantly renegotiated.

    • Rent escalation. Built-in step-ups and inflation-linked mechanisms help the income stream keep up with rising costs.

    • Cost structure that behaves. Many healthcare leases push more property-level costs to the tenant, which helps protect distributions from cost inflation.

I built the position in three tranches simply to stay consistent without needing a perfect entry price.

    IWDA stays boring, because boring compounds

    IWDA remains the main growth engine. I keep buying it because it is broad, diversified, and does not require me to guess which region wins next quarter.

    AAA, EXCS, and Bitcoin stay in their lanes

    AAA: The main win is behaviour. Let distributions build up, then reinvest in batches. December was exactly that.

    EXCS: A diversification tilt, sized as a supporting actor.

    Bitcoin: A tiny satellite. One small buy, then back to real life.

    Key takeaways

    BCB top-ups are high certainty progress. They reduce sequence risk without needing a market call.

    BCB cash is working cash. HYSA, deposits, SSBs, and T-bills keep it liquid while still earning something.

    C2PU was a deliberate new income position. Defensive demand plus rent escalators fit the dividend tap build-out.

    The core stayed the core. IWDA keeps getting fed on schedule.

    Reinvesting distributions is part of the strategy. The AAA buy was compounding by design.

    Looking ahead to January 2026

    I am watching a few things, not to predict markets, but to decide where the next dollars should go.

    • Dividend tap progress toward S$5,000 per month

      • Why: Reliable income reduces pressure on drawdown decisions later and makes the portfolio feel more self-sustaining.

      • What I might do: Keep adding to quality income holdings when yield and fundamentals make sense. This could include more C2PU or other quality REITS.

      • What would change my mind: If chasing yield means taking fragile cashflows or excessive leverage risk, I will slow down.

    • Rates and cash yields

      • Why: They shape the opportunity cost between cash and income assets, and they influence funding costs for REITs.

      • What I might do: Keep building the bridge steadily. If cash yields fall meaningfully, I may lean more into durable income and core equity flows, still within rules.

    • Simple rebalancing signals

      • Why: I do not want any sleeve to become a runaway train.

      • What I might do: Pause buys in anything that becomes clearly oversized and redirect new cash to the lagging sleeve.

    Same process, new month. Boring is still beautiful.

    November 2025 Portfolio Update: Volatility on the Screen, Progress in the Plan

    Atrahasis Portfolio Key Numbers (1 Dec  2025)

    MTD return (excluding contributions)-0.89%Market Move/Starting Balance
    Starting balance (1 Nov) S$2,848,958.7
    Purchases S$46,446.6
    Market move-S$25,349.2Includes trading fees
    Dividends ReceivedS$5,172.3
    Ending balance (30 Nov)S$2,870,056.1
    Bridge Cash Bucket (BCB)S$150,000 (36% funded)
    Dividend tapS$3,811.25/mth(76.23% of Target)
    Total (Including BCB) S$3,020,056.1

    Note: Dividend tap refers to the portfolio average monthly dividend which is estimated from Snowball Analytics.

    November Portfolio Update

    Purchases (1-30 Nov)

    IWDA (Core): 90 shares @ 126.73 USD, approx S$15,284
    IB01 (Defensive): 110 shares @118.10 USD, approx S$17,000
    SGX:HMN (Country Tilts): 4300 shares @0.940 SGD, S$4,042
    BTC (Alternatives): 0.085003  BTC, approx S$10,479

    Total deployed: approx S$46,447

    November 2025 Portfolio Update– Volatility on the Screen, Progress in the Plan

    November looked dramatic on the charts but quite ordinary for the Atrahasis Portfolio. Stocks sold off, then snapped back. Tech sulked. Bitcoin threw a full‑on tantrum. Underneath all that noise, the portfolio quietly did what it’s built to do: collect income, lean into weakness, and keep risk spread across very different engines.

    The backdrop: a V‑shaped month and a crypto tantrum

    Global equities spent November zig‑zagging. Early in the month, markets were down roughly 4–5% from recent highs before staging a strong rebound into Thanksgiving. The S&P 500 and Dow ended the month with only marginal gains, while the Nasdaq actually finished about 1.5% lower as investors cooled on the frothier end of tech.

    Beneath that, the narrative was all about interest rates. Expectations for a December Federal Reserve rate cut climbed sharply, and longer‑dated yields drifted lower again. That gave Treasuries their fourth straight month of gains and helped stabilise risk assets after the early wobble.

    The real drama, though, came from Bitcoin. After hitting fresh highs earlier in the year, it fell more than 17% in November and briefly traded near a seven‑month low, making this its second‑worst month of 2025. Heavy ETF outflows and short‑term traders bailing out did most of the damage.

    That backdrop matters because Atrahasis now holds a small, deliberate Bitcoin slice alongside its core of global stocks, bonds, REITs and cash.

    Global stocks: still the core engine

    I kept feeding the boring core.

    My main global equity holding remains iShares Core MSCI World (IWDA), which tracks the MSCI World index across 23 developed markets. Over three small trades in November, I added 90 units of IWDA at prices around U$126.

    These buys nudged the portfolio slightly closer to my 40% global equity target without trying to time anything fancy. Markets were wobbly when I added, which is exactly when it feels least comfortable to buy and most important to follow the plan.

    IWDA remains the main “growth engine” of Atrahasis: hundreds of companies, across many countries, all bundled into one very boring, very useful ETF.

    Bonds: the steady ballast

    With sentiment swinging back and forth on interest rates, the safer side of the portfolio quietly did its job.

    Singapore REITs & income: getting paid to wait

    Singapore REITs have been slowly healing as rates stop marching higher and yields settle back into the mid‑5% range. They’re no longer market darlings, but that’s fine by me. At these levels, they’re back to doing what I want them to do: grind out income while I wait.

    I also continued to build up my lodging and hospitality exposure. In November I added more CapitaLand Ascott Trust (HMN), turning it into a meaningful long‑term position in the income sleeve. The exact trade details sit in the transactions section above, but the spirit is simple: keep leaning into solid, diversified REITs when yields are still attractive.

    November itself was a classic “pay month” for Singapore.
    First REIT, Lendlease Global Commercial REIT, AIMS APAC REIT and Frasers Logistics & Commercial Trust all sent in distributions. DBS delivered the star payout with S$1,440 of dividends on its own. Together, the REITs plus DBS added about S$4,500 of fresh cash to the portfolio.

    Overseas, my US energy pipeline holding PAA chipped in as well, paying about US$170 before withholding tax. The Australian income stream continued too, with my AUD cash and bond sleeve generating another chunk of interest.

    All in, November’s income engine provided roughly S$4.5k, A$560 and US$170 in gross distributions across the portfolio. For a month where prices mostly wobbled sideways, that’s a nice reminder of why I like having an income spine running through Atrahasis. Those cashflows can either be redirected into whatever’s cheap, or used to quietly bulk up the safer sleeves without me having to inject new money every time.

    The plan here hasn’t changed: keep REITs and dividend stocks at sensible weights, let them do the heavy lifting on income, and use their payouts to rebalance into weakness rather than chase whatever happens to be hot.

      Bitcoin: leaning into discomfort

      Bitcoin had a rough month, dropping sharply from recent highs as ETF flows cooled and fast money headed for the exit. For most people, that kind of move feels scary. For my tiny allocation, it was simply a live test of whether I’d actually follow my rules.

      Instead of reacting to the noise, I stuck to the script. I made a series of very small buys spread across the month, adding about 0.085 BTC in total — roughly US$7,800 of new capital at the time. No heroics. No “all‑in on the dip.” Just steady dollar‑cost averaging into a pre‑defined, capped risk bucket.

      If Bitcoin keeps sliding, the position will stay small relative to the overall portfolio and I’ll keep accumulating at better prices within that budget. If it recovers, these uncomfortable buys will have done their job. Either way, the key is that this slice is sized so it cannot sink the ship.

      How it all fit together

      On paper, November won’t go down as a spectacular month for the Atrahasis Portfolio. Global stocks were roughly flat, tech was a little soft, bonds were gently positive, and Bitcoin was sharply down. The end result felt more like a sideways walk than a sprint.

      Behaviour‑wise, though, it was an important month:

      • Equities: I kept feeding the global core through IWDA top‑ups, instead of trying to outguess the next headline.

      • Bonds & cash: Short‑dated Treasuries and cash remained the quiet grown‑ups in the room, keeping overall volatility in check while still earning something.

      • REITs & dividends: Singapore REITs, DBS and overseas holdings combined to throw off around S$4.5k, A$560 and US$170 in income, which now sits ready to be redeployed.

      • Bitcoin: The newest, noisiest member of my Alternatives sleeve reminded me why position sizing and rules matter more than bravado or vibes.

      Put differently: when one risky sleeve (Bitcoin) went through a proper drawdown, other parts of the portfolio (short‑dated bonds, cash, income REITs, DBS) quietly absorbed the drama. That’s exactly the trade‑off I signed up for when I chose a diversified, income‑friendly structure instead of a pure‑equity rocket ship.

      Looking ahead to year‑end

      Going into December, the playbook stays boring on purpose:

      • Keep funnelling fresh cash into IWDA as the long‑term growth core.

      • Maintain a solid bond and cash cushion via short‑dated Treasuries and the AUD cash sleeve.

      • Gradually build Singapore REIT and dividend positions while yields remain interesting.

      • Treat Bitcoin as a tiny, volatile satellite governed by rules and sizing, not emotion.

      In a month where headlines shouted about corrections, valuations and crypto drama, the Atrahasis Portfolio mostly just stuck to its script: collect income, rebalance on dips, and let time do the heavy lifting.